Police officers inspect the site of a car bomb blast at a car park of a shopping mall on the Thai tourist island of Koh Samui

.

KOH SAMUI – The Southern Office of Thailand’s Tourism Authority has now stated that the car bomb at Central Festival mall on Koh Samui could take a toll on tourism on the resort island.

Prapas Inthanonpasat, chief of the Surat Thani TAT office, told the Bangkok Post there would be consequences from the explosion in a parking lot at Central Festival, and that their could be an erosion of confidence in the Island as a “Safe Tourist Destination.”

Mr Prapas Inthanonpasat urged authorities to quickly solve the bombing at the shopping center, which injured seven people, including a young Italian tourist, to restore confidence among vacationers.

Seni Phuwasettakarn, president of the Tourism Association of Koh Samui, warned that the explosion would definitely affect tourism on the island, which is not used to violent incidents of this nature?

Koh Samui has been plagued by tragedies, with the Killing of two British Tourists, Hannah Witheridge and David Miller, the Killing of a Young Myanmar Woman, then the murder of her cousin a week later, or a group of Thai Teens Stabbing a German bar owner to death, or even yet a Turkish Tourist who was shot and killed by a Thai Security guard all in 2014 also might be added to TAT’s list of deterrents for foreign visitors.

In Early march of this year 700 police and soldiers raided known haunts of gunmen and criminals on Koh Samui Island, code named operation “Dawn on Samui.”

According to some locals on Koh Samui the Island has become plagued by crime and it is affecting the tourism industry, criminals are fighting over speedboat and taxi services and businesses on walking street. The conflicts between influential groups includes murder and it’s scaring tourists and local residents.